After such a prolonged heat wave, the cooler temperatures have made the morning dog walk a lot more enjoyable.

And, it’s a reminder that autumn will be here in no time. The cooler weather also makes us think more about working in the garden, hiking and even camping.

These are activities where we can be exposed to poison oak and poison ivy. Have you ever wondered if our pets can get poison ivy if they come across it during a hike or other outdoor excursion?

Fact is that they can. Thankfully though, dogs don’t seem to get poison ivy nearly as commonly as humans. Their long, protective coats prevent the oils from poison ivy from reaching their skin. Unfortunately, however, the plant oils that cause the itching and irritation that often produce a painful rash can be spread from your canine friend to you. So if your dog “works” in the garden with you or accompanies you on a hike, keep this in mind.

Since our dogs and cats aren’t likely to become contaminated themselves and therefore do not alert us to possible exposure, what should we do to help prevent them from inadvertently transmitting poison ivy to us?

• Try to avoid petting your pet if you suspect poison ivy may be growing in the area and that your pet may have unwittingly found it when exploring. Using a towel to dry wipe him or her can significantly reduce the likelihood of transmission to you.

• Avoid touching your face and wash your hands.

• As soon as possible, take a shower. The plant oil from poison ivy or oak can linger on your own skin.

• Wash the clothes you were wearing. The chemical in the plant oil can stay active for a long time, and it doesn’t require a host.

• Wash your pet’s leash and harness with a mild detergent (make sure you handle the pet gear with gloves).

• Give your dog a bath to reduce the likelihood that poison ivy will find its way into your home.

Even if you don’t suspect poison ivy, toweling off and examining your dog is a good idea as ticks can also hitch a ride. Though monthly preventatives for fleas and ticks will protect your dog, you are still vulnerable. Ticks can carry human diseases, including the very serious Lyme disease.

Outdoor activities with your best friend can be fun. Awareness of some of the risks involved, and how to avoid them, can ensure that the entire experience will be a rewarding one.

Lynn Gensamer is the executive director of Humane Society for Greater Savannah. She can be reached by phone at 912-354-9515, ext. 105, or by email at lgensamer@humanesocietysav.org.

Evelyn Smith of Corvallis had two things in 1962 that helped to change the world: small children and a yard full of poison oak.

The wife of chemist Robert Smith, a former executive with Mead Johnson, Evelyn was tired of the two youngest of her five children coming in from the yard and developing itchy rashes. So she went out one day and, barehanded, yanked up each plant.

She cleaned up with a waterless skin cleanser originally meant to remove the radioactive dust from nuclear fallout. It had been sitting around the house since Robert had invented it. Afterward, she told a neighbor about her efforts.

The neighbor wanted to know: Did the poison oak affect her, too?

Actually, Evelyn said, it hadn’t. Later, she told her husband about the yardwork and mentioned the cleanser.

According to Tec Labs lore, Robert initially brushed off the whole incident as a case of “puny” poison oak, not nearly as potent as the plants in their native Iowa. To prove it, he rubbed a patch on his arm.

Gary Burris, Tec Labs’ director of public relations, doesn’t have on record whether Robert ended up saying anything along the lines of, “I’m sorry, dear, you were right.”

But his arm did break out in a rash. And he did test the cleanser on a new patch of skin.

And that’s how Tec Labs’ signature product, Tecnu, was born.

Robert found the product kept the oil in both poison oak and poison ivy from bonding with skin, which meant it not only kept the rash from spreading, but could keep it from forming in the first place.

Out of the garage

Over the next nearly four decades, Tecnu helped Tec Laboratories grow from its home in the Smith garage in Corvallis to a 58,000-square-foot building in Albany. It now employs 35 people full time; more during the summer season.

The pharmaceutical manufacturer now has six products under the flagship Tecnu brand, and another three under its increasingly popular LiceFreee line.

Burris estimates Tec Labs has sold some 53.3 million units of its various products since 1977, and can find its products in more than 47,000 stores. Chief Executive Officer Steve Smith — Robert’s son and brother of Vernon Smith, the company’s vice president of operations — is proud to note at least one Tec Labs product is on the shelf of every chain drug store in the United States.

Steve Smith is careful about giving away any plans for future products, but the company is always on the lookout for new ideas.

Anytime Tec Labs hears from a customer who’s pleased with one of its products, Steve said, “We’ll ask, ‘What other problems do you have?’ We’ll see if there’s an opportunity there. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t.”

Burris said every employee who goes to a conference or a trade show is asked to come back with a list of 10 ideas, maybe about something impressive they saw, or maybe about a perceived gap in possible service.

Regulatory Affairs Director Wendy Langley is one of those employees, although her idea came from first-hand experience.

In the late 1990s, Langley was among moms struggling with the bane of elementary school classrooms everywhere: head lice.

Available products at that time were runny, smelled like bug spray and didn’t even work, as far as Langley was concerned. “I thought there just had to be another way.”

Research took her to a folk remedy centered on sodium chloride: table salt. She worked to formulate the salt into a gel that would hold its place on a child’s head, a concoction that became LiceFreee.

The product immediately took off, but Langley didn’t stop thinking about ways to improve. A spray-on solution would be even easier to use, she thought, and might even work more effectively.

“And I tried it in the lab, and it did, and I thought, cool,” she remembered. Three years ago, LiceFreee hit the market.

Poison oak is a North American peeve, Steve Smith said, but lice is a problem worldwide. That’s part of the reason he’s working on taking Tec Labs solutions to an international level.

Burris said Tec Labs builds its whole culture on looking at the big picture, both for the care of its customers and its employees.

“The one thing we do is look at problems that are driving everyone crazy, that we can solve better than anyone else has,” he said. “We’re looking at symptom-driven ailments. If we can solve it better, for a good price, it really is amazing to people.”

It all goes back to Evelyn, he said: “If it wasn’t for a mom trying to protect her kids, we wouldn’t be here today.”

New Allegra- Anti-Itch Cream Introduced by Sanofi-Chattem for Poison Ivy and Itchy Skin

Allegra Anti-Itch Cooling Relief Cream and Allegra Anti-Itch Intensive Relief Cream are now available in drug, grocery and mass merchandiser stores nationwide. Chattem, Inc., the Consumer Healthcare Division of Sanofi US and the makers of Allegra Allergy, introduced the Anti-Itch Creams to its family of products to help provide itch relief from reactions to skin irritations.

“We identified an opportunity in the topical anti-itch category and leveraged our experience with Allegra Allergy to introduce a new product for common skin irritations that not only helps stop the itch but also provides a moisturizing benefit,” said John Stroud, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Chattem.

Itchy skin can be triggered by a chemical in a person’s body called histamine. Histamine is a person’s immune system reacting to an irritant, like an insect bite or poison ivy. Allegra Anti-Itch Cream acts as an antihistamine, going beneath the surface of the skin to stop the itch at its source. In addition, the moisturizers and vitamins A, C and E in Allegra Anti-Itch Cream help soothe the skin, and the allantoin protects the skin while it gets back to normal after scratching.

Allegra Anti-Itch Cream is indicated for adults and children ages 2 and up. The suggested retail price is $4.99-$6.99. For additional information on the Allegra family of products, please visit www.allegra.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

New Allegra- Anti-Itch Cream Introduced by Sanofi-Chattem for Poison Ivy and Itchy Skin

About Allegra®Allegra Allergy has been providing allergy sufferers with relief of symptoms from indoor and outdoor allergies for more than 15 years. The Allegra family of products is available without a prescription in drug, grocery, mass merchandiser and club stores nationwide.

About SanofiSanofi, a global and diversified healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients’ needs. Sanofi has core strengths in the field of healthcare with seven growth platforms: diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, rare diseases, consumer healthcare, emerging markets and animal health. Sanofi is listed in Paris (SAN) and in New York (SNY).

Sanofi is the holding company of a consolidated group of subsidiaries and operates in the United States as Sanofi US, also referred to as sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC. For more information on Sanofi US, please visit http://www.sanofi.us or call 1-800-981-2491.

AboutChattemIn March 2010, Chattem, Inc. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the sanofi-aventis Group, as the consumer healthcare division of Sanofi US. Chattem is more than 130 years old and is a leading manufacturer and marketer of branded consumer healthcare products, toiletries and dietary supplements across niche market segments in the United States. For more information, please visit Chattem’s website at www.chattem.com

Forward Looking Statements

New Allegra- Anti-Itch Cream Introduced by Sanofi-Chattem for Poison Ivy and Itchy Skin

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and expectations with respect to future financial results, events, operations, services, product development and potential, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “plans” and similar expressions. Although Sanofi’s management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sanofi, that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, future clinical data and analysis, including post marketing, decisions by regulatory authorities, such as the FDA or the EMA, regarding whether and when to approve any drug, device or biological application that may be filed for any such product candidates as well as their decisions regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of such product candidates, the absence of guarantee that the product candidates if approved will be commercially successful, the future approval and commercial success of therapeutic alternatives, the Group’s ability to benefit from external growth opportunities, trends in exchange rates and prevailing interest rates, the impact of cost containment policies and subsequent changes thereto, the average number of shares outstanding as well as those discussed or identified in the public filings with the SEC and the AMF made by Sanofi, including those listed under “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in Sanofi’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011. Other than as required by applicable law, Sanofi does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements.

New Allegra- Anti-Itch Cream Introduced by Sanofi-Chattem for Poison Ivy and Itchy Skin

New Allegra- Anti-Itch Cream Introduced by Sanofi-Chattem for Poison Ivy and Itchy Skin